debunix wrote:Splendid session with Gui Feng oolong from Norbu--love that fruity sweetness, and that is so forgiving of 'grandpa style' brewing in my thermos (toss in leaves, add hot water, forget for an hour, then enjoy all afternoon).

Trying baozhong for the first time. I ordered an ounce of it from floating leaves along with some shanlinxi (whch I'll be trying later). It's delicious, started off a tad vegetal probably due to water that was too hot, but with lower temp water it is wonderful and creamy. Pretty viscous and I noticed that the sweetness was more on the tongue and less teeth/lips than some ali shan I've been enjoying recently. In later steeps it's become a little lighter and smoother, and the sweetness is appearing on the teeth and lips now.

Very appealing to my developing and still untrained palate. I only ordered an ounce, but maybe I'll get some more next time I order from Floating Leaves.

Some teas that I brought from Taiwan. Most of it are charcoal roasted teas or high oxidations from Chen HuangTan in Taipei or friends in Mingjian, Nantou. I was amazed by teafarmers their tasting abilities, they can even taste the weather when the tea was harvested.

Right now I'm drinking a gaoshan from Zhushan, quite heavy on the unami/vegetable flavour compared to most gaoshans.

a little bit of purion boiled water. one thing i like about purion is the heat retention, taken off the stove and sitting on a towel the water's still happily boiling away. waiting for the right bubble size before commencing brewing

3 grams into a 25ml chaozhou pot. i might have loved another 0.5 gram but that will affect the cha-dan, and subsequent flavour development

cha-dan expansion in action.

one steep per cup. different intensities as intended.

lovely! i would have loved to have this tea daily... if not for its scarcity/price

This is sort of random: Do any of you have a guilty pleasure oolong? For instance, Im a sucker for certain flavored oolong. Milk oolong or Ginseng Oolongs are teas I try to always keep on hand for western or grandpa brewing. I tend to drink them passively while focusing on the higher quality teas at night while gong fu.

Last edited by Poseidon on Aug 15th, '14, 09:55, edited 1 time in total.

Yi Ho Yeong handmade Balhyocha from Morning Crane Tea--finally cleared enough other oolongs from the open group to indulge in this one.

Amazingly plummy fruity scents just on opening the bag—so surprising that I automatically looked around for some fruit that might be giving off the scent. Long twisty dark but intact-appearing leaves, mmmm.

2.4 grams of leaf in my 90 mL Seong-Il pot and water at 205 degrees to prewarm the pot…flash infusion, the plummy scent rising from the golden liquor in the Flower of Forgetfulness. And it tastes just as good as it looks and smells—sweet, delicately floral and fruity all at once, marvelous.

3rd infusion—still flash infusions and still perfectly lovely, getting a little light—probably need a touch more time for the next infusion.

I keep going for 8 to 10 infusions, delightful to the last. Next time I’ll be bolder on the leaf-water ratio—to keep the intensity going longer. Lovely, lovely stuff.

debunix wrote:Yi Ho Yeong handmade Balhyocha from Morning Crane Tea--finally cleared enough other oolongs from the open group to indulge in this one.

Amazingly plummy fruity scents just on opening the bag—so surprising that I automatically looked around for some fruit that might be giving off the scent. Long twisty dark but intact-appearing leaves, mmmm.

2.4 grams of leaf in my 90 mL Seong-Il pot and water at 205 degrees to prewarm the pot…flash infusion, the plummy scent rising from the golden liquor in the Flower of Forgetfulness. And it tastes just as good as it looks and smells—sweet, delicately floral and fruity all at once, marvelous.

3rd infusion—still flash infusions and still perfectly lovely, getting a little light—probably need a touch more time for the next infusion.

I keep going for 8 to 10 infusions, delightful to the last. Next time I’ll be bolder on the leaf-water ratio—to keep the intensity going longer. Lovely, lovely stuff.

I really loved this tea so much. It was my favorite of the Yi Ho Yeong teas and I wish I had more! I ended up going higher on the water to leaf ratio about 5g to 90ml and it really seemed to shine. So many infusions... It's not too often that I get to drink a totally handmade tea such as this. I really hope he offers Yi Ho Yeongs teas again because I would buy much more of this tea...

daintydimsum wrote:I was considering getting some to try! What notes do you get from this tea? (Also, lovely lovely pictures and set up!)

not too sure if this information would be any useful to you but this is my personal type of "tea record/profiling", and the particular record for Hojo's Lao Cong guihua dancong brewed CZ style, ratio around 1g/10ml, boiling hot water, quick steeps. standard cha-dan with no crushing in the middle gives the following profile

the light green vapory notes of the tea with hints of osmanthus floats on the surface of the brew, the scent hit you just before the sip. in the mouth, these notes then transition to a dominant honeyed orchid just as the "yun" of the tea kicks in and starts to rise exponentially. the yun reaches a saturation as the mouth feels comes in on the thick lingering sweetness with a light bitter at the back of the throat.

it is possible to "save" on this tea by using half the leaf quantity if desired (since this tea is around $6/gram), compensating with a slightly longer brew time, but in my single experiment the "yun" of the tea dropped significantly to around 30%, the tea's aromatic/taste profile became a bit more central shifted, not as intense/quick, and due to the longer steep, the tail end had a little bit of roughness, which i should have discarded than have it go into a cup